United States: A powerful 7.9 undersea earthquake sent Alaskans fumbling for suitcases and racing to evacuation centres in the middle of the night after a cellphone alert warned a tsunami could hit communities along the state's southern coast and parts of British Columbia. The monster waves never materialised, but people who fled endured hours of tense waiting at shelters before they were cleared to return home. The quake was the planet's strongest since an 8.2 magnitude in Mexico in September.
Europe: Italian authorities say about 150 people were ferried by helicopter from a high valley in northern Italy because of severe avalanche risks. The evacuees included 75 guests and workers at a four-star mountainside hotel located in an area near the Austrian border where an avalanche hit. The avalanche didn't strike the hotel, but damaged an outbuilding at a farm. Another avalanche nearby destroyed the second floor of a family home. No injuries were reported.The avalanche danger in the Vallelunga area of the high Venosta Valley has been put at the risk scale's highest level after a record snowfall in recent days. The area where the four-star hotel and other tourist sites were evacuated has been completely cut off by the snow. French officials say that roads and ski slopes have reopened in the Chamonix ski resort on Mont Blanc and confinement orders have been lifted as an exceptional avalanche risk recedes.
United States: Illinois Senator Tammy Duckworth is pregnant with her second child. She will be the first US senator to give birth while in office. The 49-year-old Democrat is a veteran who lost her legs in the Iraq War. Duckworth gave birth to her first child in 2014, while serving in the House. She is one of only 10 lawmakers who have given birth while serving in Congress.
Science: Women who have caesareans appear to have an increased risk of future miscarriages, stillbirths and placenta problems, scientists say. University of Western Australia researchers helped their Scots colleagues analyse data from 80 different studies involving almost 30 million women to try to establish the long-term risks and benefits of caesareans compared to natural births. The researchers found caesareans were associated with a decreased risk of urinary incontinence and pelvic prolapse for mums. But women who went on to have further pregnancies appeared more at risk of miscarriage, stillbirth and a host of placenta problems. And children born by caesareans appeared to have an increased risk of asthma for up to 12 years. The study was published in the journal PLOS Medicine.
Syria: Russia bears responsibility for recent reported chemical weapons attacks by the Syrian Government, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said. The alleged chlorine gas attacks in January affected 20 civilians, many of them children, in the rebel-held Damascus suburb of Eastern Ghouta, where government-allied forces have starved and bombarded around 400,000 civilians in a siege lasting more than three years. "Whoever conducted the attacks, Russia ultimately bears responsibility for the victims in East Ghouta and countless other Syrians targeted with chemical weapons, since Russia became involved in Syria," Tillerson told reporters in Paris. "There is simply no denying that Russia, by shielding its Syrian ally, has breached its commitments to the US as a framework guarantor." There have been at least 130 chemical attacks in Syria since 2012, according to French estimates.
United States: Philadelphia wants to become the first US city to allow supervised drug injection sites as a way to combat the opioid epidemic. Officials are seeking outside operators to establish one or more in the city. Public Health Commissioner Dr Thomas Farley said the sites could be "a life-saving strategy and a pathway to treatment". He said: "We want people saddled with drug addiction to get help." Philadelphia has the highest opioid death rate of any large US city. More than 1200 people fatally overdosed in Philadelphia in 2017.
Brazil: A day before a panel of judges could decide his political survival, former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva railed against his adversaries and proclaimed to tens of thousands of supporters that he would stay in Brazilian politics to the end of his life. Tomorrow, three judges in the southern city of Porto Alegre are to decide whether last year's corruption and money laundering conviction should stand against the embattled left-leaning politician who is leading in the polls for the October presidential election. A ruling against da Silva could bar him from running.
Libya: Twin car bombs exploded as people left a mosque in a residential area of the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi, killing 27 and wounding over 30 in an attack timed to cause mass casualties among first responders, officials said. Captain Tarek Alkharraz, spokesman for military and police forces in Benghazi, said the first explosion went off in the Salmani neighbourhood and the second bomb went off a half hour later as residents and medics gathered to evacuate the wounded. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the bombings.
United States: Police say a fast-food worker upset at having to work a morning shift has given new meaning to a burrito to go, slinging a hot one at his Taco Bell supervisor before storming out. Police in South Carolina say officers were called to the Spartanburg eatery, where a supervisor reported telling the worker to "stop being a crybaby" — just before being beaned with the food-filled projectile. Melted cheese from the airborne burrito splattered her left arm, side and leg.
Australia: An investigative journalist is protecting confidential sources who contributed to her book about Cardinal George Pell, as Australia's highest-ranking Catholic fights historical sex offence charges. Counsel for Pell appeared before Melbourne Magistrates Court for an administrative update about subpoenas it sent to the public broadcaster and Louise Milligan, who wrote the book Cardinal: The Rise and Fall of George Pell. Earlier in January the ABC provided a hard drive containing footage and transcripts to the court after Milligan agreed to hand over some of the material sought by Pell's lawyers. It's understood the footage contains unedited interviews between Milligan and some of the complainants who have accused Pell of multiple historical sex offences. Magistrate Suzanne Cameron said the ABC had redacted some of the requested material under legal and professional privilege. She also said Milligan had not handed over documents about confidential sources. Pell is scheduled to face a four-week committal hearing in March that will determine if he should stand trial.
United States: The number of violent crimes in the US decreased by 0.8 per cent in the first half of 2017 compared with the same period in 2016, but the number of murders increased by 1.5 per cent, the FBI says. While murder was up, other categories of violent crime, including rape, robbery and aggravated assault, all decreased in the first half of 2017 by 2.4 per cent, 2.2 per cent, and 0.1 per cent, respectively, the FBI said.
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